ETHNOLOGY HEDLET. 301 



FIRE STICKS. 



Almost without exception fire has been obtained by all primitive 

 people by the rubbing together of pieces of wood. In detail, 

 however, the process differs greatly among different races. 



Among Australian Aborigines the usual method was to press 

 and twirl between the palms a perpendicular rod in a hole in a 

 fixed horizontal stick.* The ancient Egyptians, likewise, rotated a 

 perpendicular upon a horizontal stick, but employed a bow to 

 revolve the upright. 



Another method, approaching more closely to the form we are 

 about to consider, is the fire- saw used in Borneo and Australia under 

 several forms,! the general principle of which consists of sawing 

 an edged rod in a notched one. 



Throughout the Pacific Islands one method, and, as far as I am 

 aware, only one is employed, that of ploughing a wooden blade in 

 a groove. It is thus described by Woodford in the Solomons : 

 " A stake of dry, soft wood is selected, a convenient size being 

 about as thick as the wrist. For convenience a few chips are 

 sliced off in one place to make a flat surface to rub upon. The 

 stake is then placed upon the ground in front of the operator, 

 who sits on one end of it and holds it steady between his toes, 

 then with a pencil-shaped piece of harder wood, held firmly in 

 both hands, he begins rubbing up and down upon the flat surface. 

 A groove is formed and a dark coloured dust soon produced, which 

 is pushed to the farther end of the groove. The dust before long 

 begins to smoke. The pace is increased, and it begins to smoulder. 

 A piece of dry touchwood is then applied to it and quickly blown 

 into a glow. With perfectly dry wood a native will almost 

 certainly produce fire in less than a minute. "J 



Though the general process has been repeatedly described, the 

 exact method of gripping the stick with the hands has not, I believe, 

 been explained. The crossed thumbs are placed beneath the 

 stick, the flexed fingers of one half-opened hand are placed above 

 it, and upon them are laid the fingers of the other hand, this 

 posture (fig. 75) allowing the operator to lean the whole weight 

 of his body on the stick, while rapidly moving it to and fro, at 

 about half a right angle to the grooved stick. In an example from 

 Funafuti before me, the blackened groove is three and a half inches 



* For details and figures see Brough Smyth Aborigines of Victoria, 

 i., 1876, p. 392, figs. 231, 232. 



t Both The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, i., 1896, 

 p. 377, fig. ; and Brough Smyth Loc. cit., p. 395, figs. 223, 224. 



J Woodford A Naturalist among the Head-hunters, 1890, p. 161. 

 See also Lament op. cit., p. 156. 



Since writing this, an excellent figure and description of the process 

 by Lieut. B. T. Somerville, R.N., (Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxvi., 1897, p. 

 376, pi. xxxv.), has reached me. 



